Where to Shop After a Disaster

No sooner had the L.A. quake stopped than phones in Newton, Mass., began jiggling with callers requesting The Disaster Recovery Yellow Pages, a 250-page compilation of goods and services that can help rebuild a damaged business. "Small businesses assume that because of their smallness, they can always bungle through somehow," notes the publication's editor, Steven Lewis. Not so: most of the calls were from small companies put out of operation by the quake.

Updated semiannually, the directory prints the particulars of some 2,300 providers of postdisaster remedies. It lists specialists in predictable areas like waste removal and window boarding but also includes more-arcane categories such as smoke-odor venting and -- should all else fail -- trauma counseling.